Jonah Whale was born in Kansas and is the songwriter, founder and lead vocalist for the progressive rock band Jonah Whale. His father was in the air force and eventually settled in Pennsylvania with his three sisters and brother. As a child he was brought up listening to his father's recordings of all the great composers and classic symphony music.
After his parents divorced he lived with his mother who let his bands rehearse in a spare room. He joined his first band at age twelve as lead singer. With all those instruments at his disposal and being inspired by early progressive rock icons like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, he soon took up playing drums, guitar and keyboards as well. In a few months he was writing and recording his own music on an old reel to reel analog tape recorder.
Jonah Whale is a true solo artist, writing and recording all his own lyrics and music. And then performing all vocals and playing all instruments on all his albums, in his home recording studio.
His first album Dangerous Games was released under the artist name Maxwell Paris and was well received getting local radio airplay. He wrote, recorded and released his second solo album Underworld as Jonah Whale while continuing to play in local cover bands, sometimes as a drummer, sometimes as a lead vocalist.
After graduating college, he moved to New York, then to Los Angles eventually returning to Pennsylvania to write and record his last four albums, the most current being “VI”.
Jonah credits the fact that he is a Libra with his tendency to go to extremes musically and lyrically. He is just as comfortable writing soft love ballads, as he is writing about darker characters like a serial killer on death row, a pyromaniac and Jack the Ripper.
When asked if his lyrics come from personal experiences, he simply says that no writer can completely escape himself.
Jonah is very health conscious, and likes to eat well and work out. He loves a good party but never indulges in drugs or alcohol. One of his favorite pass times is to get online and look for new artists because hearing a good song for the first time is like going on a thrilling adventure without the bother of getting on an airplane.
In 2017 Jonah Whale formed a band for live performance and is currently playing select venues on the east coast in support of his latest album "VI".
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